PANAMA CITY — As the U.S. government moves to ease trade restrictions with Cuba, officials at Port Panama City hope the action soon could help boost business at the facility.
“We have been interested in attracting a shipping line to serve the Cuban trade for several years,” Port Director Wayne Stubbs said Wednesday following the president’s announcement. “We do think that Panama City is in a great location to service that trade ... if it is allowed to grow.”
While current sanctions do allow some trade with Cuba, exports from the U.S. are limited to informational materials, medicine and medical supplies, food products, and agricultural commodities.
Stubbs said Port Panama City has handled some small shipments to Cuba in the past, but trade restrictions have kept most U.S. shipping companies from establishing any regular service to the country.
Port Panama City isn’t the only facility keeping a close eye on the promise of increased trade.
“I think every port in the South Atlantic and on the Gulf Coast is going to be looking for the same opportunity to service a shipping company,” Stubbs said. “We’re certainly among those groups. We do feel like we have the right kind of facilities and we’re in a good position.”
Stubbs said port officials intend to actively seek new shipping partners as new regulations unfold.
“We’ve got some resources to reach out to people who may be interested,” he said. “We’ll be active behind the scenes to see if we can play some kind of matchmaking role.”
However, Stubbs said it’s still too soon to know when trade could be neutralized. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Department of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces the current sanctions, changes will not take effect until new regulations are issued.
While Treasury-related changes will be handled by OFAC, the remainder will come from changes to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations. Currently, any U.S. entity conducting limited trade with Cuba must be authorized by the Commerce Department.
Looking ahead, Stubbs is hopeful lighter restrictions could help add to the list of potential future trade partners by way of transshipment hubs, ports that take on large container ships and redistribute goods to smaller ships, like those Port Panama City is capable of receiving.
Cuba’s Port of Mariel in particular recently underwent $900 million in renovations, giving it the capability to receive some of the largest ships in the world and handle 100 million containers annually.
Port Panama City also is eyeing other transshipment hubs in the Caribbean in places like Kingston, Jamaica, and Freeport, Bahamas, as container ships continue to grow far past the facility’s handling capabilities.
“It’s kind of like changing planes in Atlanta,” Stubbs said of the process. “Over time, if trade really is open, (Mariel) may be one of those ports that could give us the ability for container shipments to move all the way to Europe and Asia.”